It seems ages since we left Sare. Jean is a strange mix, charming over serving you breakfast but after paying the bill he couldn’t wait to get you out of the place. Though the house and area have lots of charm, I don’t think it’s enough to draw us back.

We managed to fill the tank and got on the road for Ile de Re. Charles threw a slight wobbly and had us trying to ‘turn round where possible’ but once we got on to the autoroute towards Bordeaux he was fine, in fact he seemed to nod off. But south of Bordeaux we hit a traffic jam, there must have been an accident as the autoroute was closed and had an hours tour until we reached the next junction. It threw Charles into a right tizzy.

So, we arrived here in the late afternoon. Gosh, what a wonderful hotel this is and St Martin de Re is really charming itself. I think it only took five minutes for us to decide this was somewhere worth returning to. Service here is exemplarary, the breakfast is yummy but special mention must go to the cocktail barman, Stephan. Great to talk to and he makes a mean mojito.

Our evening meal was in a very busy, touristy, but excellent port side bar. The portions were huge.

Today was probably the best weather we’ve had since coming away. Perfect for a wander round the town. We had a huge galette each for lunch and then couldn’t resist a whopper ice cream tub. Well it had to happen, neither of us could face going out for a meal tonight. We settled for a last short tour of the port and cocktails and nibbles with Stephan. I even had a Manhattan…

Tomorrow, we set off for home. This has probably been the most dissapointing trip from the weather point of view but the last two days have made up for it….I think my burnt head would agree…